Ridgway logger injured in accident near Kane

Photo by Ted Lutz – Volunteer Kane firefighters help load a logging accident victim into the Starflight medical helicopter for transport Friday to the UPMC Hamot Medical Center in Erie.

KANE – A Ridgway logger was injured Friday in a work-related accident in the Allegheny National Forest near Kane.
Tim Holt, chief of the Kane Volunteer Fire Department, identified the victim as Tom Luchs. He is listed as the president of TMJ Logging of 25 Morgan Ave., Ridgway.

Copyright 2014 Ridgway Record

Ridgway logger injured in accident near Kane
By Ted Lutz
Republican Staff
Kane, Pa. – A Ridgway logger was injured Friday in a work-related accident in the Allegheny National Forest near Kane.
Tim Holt, chief of the Kane Volunteer Fire Department, identified the victim as Tom Luchs. He is listed as the president of TMJ Logging of 25 Morgan Ave., Ridgway.
Luchs suffered a "severe leg injury," according to Mike Volpe, a Kane Emergycare ambulance paramedic. Volpe rode to the remote site of the accident aboard the fire department's Utility 54 truck.
He said the "terrain" at the accident site in the forest presented a challenge to first-responders.
"Getting to him was the issue," Volpe said. "There was a lot of snow and ice."
The Starflight medical helicopter from WCA Hospital landed in a clearing just west of the Jo-Jo Road bridge in Wetmore Township. Two forest roads branch off from the main route on the west side of the bridge.
The helicopter transported the injured logger to the trauma unit at the UPMC Hamot Medical Center in Erie. He is listed in "fair" condition, according to a Hamot spokesman.
The Kane fire department answered the call about 11:30 a.m. Friday. In addition to Utility 54, one engine and the rescue truck also responded to the call with about 20 firefighters, Holt said.
Mt. Jewett Ambulance was the first to arrive because the Kane Emergycare ambulance at the time was on a medical call. The Emergycare ambulance arrived a short time later.
Utility 54 carried Volpe, emergency medical technicians (EMTS) and firemen to the site of the accident. Holt drove his personal vehicle to the scene, which is about four miles from the Jo-Jo Road bridge.
Holt said the remote location of the accident is along Forest Road 133 that leads to the Tionesta Scenic Area. He said the victim was working in a valley between a quarter mile and a half mile off the forest road.
Holt said Luchs did not lose consciousness despite his serious leg injury.
Holt said the forest road leading to the accident site was "snow-covered and slippery."
First-responders at the scene placed Luchs on a Stokes basket-- a metal wire stretcher. Once strapped in the basket, the victim was carried back to the road and loaded onto Utility 54.
This vehicle transported the victim to the helicopter landing site near the bridge on Jo-Jo Road.
Firefighters carried the basket with the victim from Utility 54 to the waiting helicopter.